mail merge and forms

On the sage advice of a couple of resident experts (thanks again!), I have set up a mail merge data base. I will use this for about 8 forms and maybe 20-25 letters.

Preliminary testing is great. I have only set up one Word form so far but it works great. I am having a couple of problems though.

The form has multiple fields and only some will be filled via the mail merge function. My intention was to have the user open up the blank document and use the mail merge feature to propogate the basic info. Then, once the new document is created, fill out the remaining fields (those that will be unique each time), print the form and go onto the next.

The problem is that the in the merged document, the fields that the user is now to fill out have disappeared. Is there a fix for this or what am I doing wrong?

I thought the problem was that I can not seem to use the mail merge feature and also protect the document (as far as I can figure out) but even protecting the merged document does not recreate the fields.

Thanks for any of your ideas.


Ned.

I started this project as excel then switched to word but the limitations in word forms has sent me back to excel which, it turns out is going to be perfect (except getting my documents to look like they should in excel.)

So, I no longer need an answer to this question.

Thanks anyway.


Ned.

In the event you check back or want to revert back to
word.... I have several documents that require variables
to be inserted which are useless to put in the database.
In word you can use the "fill in" feature (Ctrl F9 -
"fillin",or "use insert "wordfield - fillin"). A
dialogue box will pop up, prompting you to fill in the
variable information. And your document will look fine.

Sandy.
-----Original Message-----
On the sage advice of a couple of resident experts
(thanks again!), I have set up a mail merge data base. I
will use this for about 8 forms and maybe 20-25 letters.

Preliminary testing is great. I have only set up one
Word form so far but it works great. I am having a couple
of problems though.

The form has multiple fields and only some will be
filled via the mail merge function. My intention was to
have the user open up the blank document and use the mail
merge feature to propogate the basic info. Then, once the
new document is created, fill out the remaining fields
(those that will be unique each time), print the form and
go onto the next.

The problem is that the in the merged document, the
fields that the user is now to fill out have disappeared.
Is there a fix for this or what am I doing wrong?

I thought the problem was that I can not seem to use the
mail merge feature and also protect the document (as far
as I can figure out) but even protecting the merged
document does not recreate the fields.

Thanks for any of your ideas.


Ned.
.